November 7, 2013 "Elder Anderton speaks Spanish"

November 7, 2013

Dear Family,

Elder Anderton is beginning to see that God keeps his promises and that his mouth is filled with the words he should say when he opens his mouth.

Our investigator is progressing but was unable to come to church because he didn't have any clean clothes...it's a lame excuse I know and we are going to talk to him this week about keeping the sabbath day holy so that he understands a little better. It's the first time he has missed church in over 2 months so he's doing really well. He still has his baptismal date for November 30 and I truly believe that he will make it!

Other than him we really don't have any other investigators. We've started working with Ismael again after he's been sick for the last 2-3 weeks. We were able to talk to him and his mom on Monday and put a baptismal date for the 21 of december. his mom is the big IF because she claims he needs to change and be better or essentially perfect to be baptized. we were able to talk things out and she agreed that if she has seen real growth and change between now and December 21 then she will let him be baptized so we'll see how that goes.

We went and played paintball this morning with a part of the zone and it was a lot of fun. it was the first time I've ever paintballed and I really thought it would hurt a lot more than it does. it's an intense game that gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing. it was a good time and great to do something different and fun on P day.

workin hard and havin fun- john miller's famous quote

so cool that you were able to go to the marching band competition. AF does it again!!!!! I'm proud to be a caveman! It's also pretty cool that you were able to see Nikelle a little in her new life in southern utah. She's pretty awesome and may be too cool for me with all the cool stuff she does.

Well gotta go get sardined into a bus and go back to licey to try to get home and take a shower and then back to harvesting souls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Robinson

October 30, 2013 "Spanish"

October 30, 2013

Dear Family,

Elder Anderton and I are trying to practice spanish and learn more spanish to help him gain some confidence and so that he can actually speak. Everyone asks him to talk just because they probably are uncomfortable that he new guy never says anything...he gets frustrated when they tell him to talk and he is generally frustrated with spanish. He beats himself up way too much. I know I did a fair share of beating myself up when I was first learning spanish but not nearly as much as he does. The great danger of never saying anything is that your mind wanders and you think of a lot of different things which can make you home sick and can also make it very difficult to focus on the work. I feel like he just spaces out most of the time and day dreams about football and home. It´s a challenge but nothing we can´t overcome. I essentially make him pay attention and almost force him to teach so that he gets out of his shell and opens his mouth.

Our investigator is progressing but still has issues with his ex-wife which is bad and in my opinion is preventing him from progressing. He still holds onto old hurt feelings and he needs to let go and move on if he´s really going to do this all for the right reasons. He quit smoking and drinking coffee in just a week and he hasn´t failed to come to church in over 2 months. He´s doing well but if we don´t figure out a couple little issues then it´s gonna be tricky...

other than him we don´t really have other progressing investigators which has resulted in Elder Anderton learning the joys of tracting and knocking doors. We´ve met many catholics and I feel we´ve had to talk about Mary and why we don´t worship her everyday this week.

Now that I´ve been accepted to byu I´ve been thinking about what I´d like to study and the major that has been on my mind lately has been physical therapy. it just seems right to me. only time will tell...

google may say that the temp is going down here in the D.R. but I would tell you that google lies.

We had an awesome meeting with all the bishops, mission leader, missionaries, and the stake presidency along with Pres. Douglas on saturday where we talked about goals we want to meet befoe the end of the year in the stake and in the stake the leaders put a goal to baptize 50 people and rescue 47 inactive families. needless to say there is a lot of work to be done and it there is no way we will be able to meet these goals if we don´t have member support and if we don´t work with them on a daily basis. the inactive families that we are working with are not progressing with just visits from the missionaries. they need the members. We gotta work!

Elder Hunter Allen Robinson

p.s. sorry this was so long Taft, I know you used a lot of time to read it; if you read it. haha

October 25, 2013 "Another Busy Week"

Dear Family,

 

In my interview with President Douglas he said something that I liked: if you have faith it means you gotta work like hell.¨

it´s true and it´s direct.

We´ve had some good experiences teaching and finding new people but for the most part the work is really slow.....member support is waning and we have very few people that we are teaching.

Mom thank you for always being so loving and patient having to clean up after us all our lives and pleading and begging us to do a few little chores and then doing them anyway when you disobedient children don´t do them. I think I may know a little of what that feels like now and I am sorry. I don´t like playing ¨mom¨ in our house but unfortunately I have to. I have to be constantly hounding the others (mostly the 2 latins, my comp is great) to help and pull their weight. Now I can´t even imagine what it must be like to do that for 7 people. You´re Wonder Woman!

working with less actives doesn´t seem to be rendering results...it´s a long and difficult way back to activity and sometimes it´s hard to know what these people need to progress and come back. Most of the time they just put on a show to try and convince us that everything is okay and that they are fine but we know they aren´t and it´s hard to know how to learn their problems. It´s obvious that we need the spirit and the gift of descernment because they dont seem all that excited or willing to tell us what´s going on. the key is patience and love. which isn´t always easy....

In a meeting we had with Pres. Douglas yesterday we were talking about the gift of tongues and it´s a commonly misunderstood gift of the spirit. The gift of tongues obviously refers to those missionaries that go to foreign lands and speak foreign languages but it also refers to every missionary and member and person that speaks their native language. The gift of tongues refers more to the ability to speak by the spirit and communicate what God wants communicated whether it be in a foreign language or not. So Taft, you have the gift of tongues and I know that you had your heart set on going out of the country on your mission to speak another language and thought it had been confirmed through your patriarchal blessing but know that you do have the gift of tongues and you are teaching the word of God in his language; the language of the spirit.

I am feeling the spirit in ways that I haven´t felt before. And I attribute it to my amazing companion that has such great desires to serve and be obedient and be a great missionary.

and we are not being disobedient by emailing on friday (not p day). the internet center was closed on wednesday and we were busy yesterday.

my deferment to the summer semester at BYU was granted so I´m all set to go!!!!!!! man that was a stressful and long process...so happy it´s over.

Life is good and it´s almost Halloween!!!

happy birthday Noah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

does he have a personal email address now that he´s 14?

love ·Elder hunter allen robinson

October 16, 2013 "BYU!!"

October 16, 2013

Dear Family,

I GOT INTO BYU PROVO!!!

One stoked Elder

October 9, 2013 "My Kid"

October 9, 2013

Dear Family,

Today my son was born. His name is Elder Anderton and he is a giant. He is 6 foot 5 inches tall, played football, ran track, threw javelin and shot put and is a really nice humble guy. He´s from kamas utah. It´s the first time I´ve needed to look up at my comp to talk to him in a long time because all my comps for a long time have been shorter than me. He knows very little spanish which has taken me way back to when I first started the mission. I am trying to adjust to speaking english more, I´ve serisously forgotten how to say a lot of things

This last week was spent in the hospital trying to figure out what Elder Garcia has. We still don´t know what he has and he´s now in San Francisco de Macoris so it´ll be a little harder for him to get to the doctor´s office. He´s still peeing blood and they don´t know why...and now he´s not with me so I guess I´ll never know.

It was a tough transfer and I don´t know that I can say that I learned patience and tolerance but I know that it has prepared me for what I will face now with my kid and in the rest of my mission and the rest of my life.

General Conference was great! I was able to watch all of it in English and can´t wait for the Liahona to read over the talks again. It was my last conference in the mission so that´s kinda sad because I feel I learn so much more from it being a missionary. 

Many good friends are going home this transfer. It will never cease to amaze me how quickly one makes friends in such a short amount of time! 

It´s so cool that you were able to meet thomas vaga and his family. I do know him. I have talked to him several times. So cool that you met him and were able to talk.

Well life is crazy. The admissions counselor I emailed from BYU told me to go in and change my application on the 15 to apply for the summer semester so we´ll see how that goes. I got into byui but am not sure if I want to go there....we´ll see how it all pans out. I may or may not need to start a whole new application...

Life is crazy crazy crazy and the time is going to fly faster than ever now.

Elder Hunter Allen Robinson

October 2, 2013 "Called to Train"

October 2, 2013

Dear Family,

Well folks everyone´s been saying it for a long time now and I´ve been denying it until about 15 minutes ago. I´m gonna train this next transfer. President Douglas called me to tell me. It´s a little bit of a shock. I´ve known for a long time that I would train and President has always kinda teased me with it by calling me out in meetings about a year ago when he was talking about the huge flux of missionaries that is happening. so here we are. In a week I´ll have yet another companion and he´ll be a greenie hungry and thirsty to bring souls unto Christ. It´s gonna be a cool experience.

Let me tell you about one of the few progressing investigators we have here in Licey. His Ex Wife is a recent convert and is what got him coming to church. My first impression of him was not good seeing as how about a month ago he showed up drunk to lecture his ex wife for leaving him. So it was a big surprise to see him show up at church a couple weeks later and he hasn´t missed church since. He has some obvious issues with the word of wisdom but he is very sincere and has since asked ex-wife and his daughter to forgive him. In the past he has spoken out against the church on radio and t.v. so we are being really careful about everything but it seems like he is truly changing. He has a baptismal date for the 30 of November and it looks like I´ll be here seeing as how I´ll probably stay here to train and generally you spend two transfers (3 months) training. It´s been interesting to see nearly all doubts about this investigator disappear as we have been guided by the spirit and have taught him. He has changed and if he´s willing to make a drastic change in his life he will be baptized on november 30.

it´s raining a lot here and my comp is sick. We still don´t know what he has. he´s at the hospital with Elder Urbina who has kidney stones doing a few more tests to figure out what´s up. I really hope he´s okay and that he´s not too sick.

Elder Robinson

September 18, 2013 "Sorry It's Short"

September 18, 2013

Dear Family,

life is good. I´m alive. i spent my time trying to get my byu application ready so I don´t have more time to talk bye.

love Hunter Allen Robinson

Note: You'd think he's in the last 6 months of his mission....the letters are getting shorter as we go, but we still love every word....

September 11, 2013 "Shoes"

 September 11, 2013

Dear Family,

so I think it´s time to cash in the missionary mall 2 year guarentee on these shoes.

1. hole

2.big crack in the bottom

3. other hole

4.big separation with the first hole.

I only have 6 months left and i didn´t want to take advantage of the missionary mall guarantee so that I could just have new shoes to take home but that was before the holes showed up and the before they started breaking.

I don´t know if you already sent the fall package. if so I´m sorry I didn´t tell you in time because even though Missionary mall will give me the shoes for free you will have to send them to me.....

Elder Hunter Allen Robinson

September 4, 2013 "First week as District Leader"

September 4, 2013

Dear Family,

Ever since i received this new responsibility as District leader I´ve felt the spirit and inspiration as to how to help this district and our areas. there are just 4 in our district and it´s us four that live in the same house and work in the same ward. so we share pretty much all the same challenges and difficulties. I felt inspiration as I planned and thought about what I wanted to talk about in my first district meeting i lead which we had on monday.

the challenges we are facing are very common here every where you go: lack of member support, lack of references from the members, and forever investigators. We have a lot of investigators that we´ve been working with for a long time and have not progressed more towards baptisms so it´s about time we figure out exactly what they want and help them get it or find someone new to teach. It´s always tought and emotional to leave investigators that you´ve worked with and have grown to love but sometimes it is necessary. we had to leave viviana and it went really well. we felt the spirit and love and were able to leave her without getting worked up about it. she knows that she is invited to church and the sudnay she goes to church we will visit her that same day.

Elder Garcia has a little over a year in the mission and is a good missionary and teaches well. He´s from Honduras. 

life is good. I think I´m slowly getting whiter (thank goodness) thanks to sunscreen and this good skin cream I use that heals and clears damaged skin.

Elder Hunter Allen Robinson

August 28, 2013 "Transfers..."

August 28, 2013

Dear Family,

First off, sorry for not writing last week. We had a special meeting with President Anderson (caribbean area president) and his wife on Wednesday so we have to use a different day as p day. The meeting with President Anderson was amazing and we were able to be there with 3 zones here in Santiago and we learned a lot.

He shared a story of when he was a mission president in Mexico. at taht time he and his wife still had 3 little kids and they hired a mexican lady to come to the house and teach their kids spanish. sister Anderson, being a sneaky mission president´s wife and a good missionary, asked Irma to use the book of mormon to teach her children spanish. she started using the book of mormon and as the kids learned and read ans asked questions she began to have questions of her own. one day she went to sis Anderson and asked her ¨what is this book?¨ sis anderson explained a little about the book of mormon and told her there were a few young elders that could help her learn more. She loved talking with the missionaries and began attending church and loved everything about the gospel. it came to the time when the missionaries felt she was ready to be baptized and they invited her to be baptized several times and she kept saying she wasn´t ready and then one day she asked the missionaries not to come back.....Irma was still teaching the kids spanish and had regular contact with Pres. Anderson and the elders asked him to talk to her to try and find out what happened. she said that she felt pressured by the missionaries and didn´t want to be pressured. Pres. Anderson told her. ¨the missionaries aren´t tryhing to pressure you. they are just inviting you to do what God has commanded and expects of us. Now, if the missionaries invite you to do something you can say no. In fact you can even say no to me if I invite you to do something, but if God invites you to do something you cannot and you should not say no.¨ these words really hit home and she was baptized shortly after.

This story really helped me remember that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I need to work hard to help investigators and members to know and feel that it is really Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ that are inviting them to study the book of mormon, pray, attend church, have family home evening, family prayer, magnify callings.....it was very powerful for me.

today is transfers and I am with yet another companion...I really wanted to stay with Elder Alvarado one more transfer but it looks like the Lord has other plans for me. My new comp is Elder Garcia from Honduras. He was in my district about 5 months ago when I was in La Vega. first impresssion is good and I think we´ll be just fine. I´m now district leader. I´ve always kind of dreaded the thought of having a leadership position in the mission because there are so many things that we have to do just as regular missionaries and when you stack responsibility for other missionaries and their areas on top of that it seems stressful but I feel good and I feel up to the challenge and I know that God will qualify me for this calling.

Life goes on. I love the mission and it freaks me out that I´m in the last quarter. I have become so used to being a missionary and this lifestyle that it scares me to think about going back home and haveing such an abrupt change. I love you all but it is a weird feeling.

Elder Hunter Allen Robinson